CAIT asks FM to probe biz model of e-tailers, says deep discounts causing GST loss

Traders' body CAIT on Monday urged the government to probe the business model of e-commerce majors like Amazon and Flipkart, alleging that deep discounts on products were causing loss of GST revenue to the Centre and state governments. In a letter to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the Confederation of All India Traders ( CAIT) has claimed that e-commerce companies Amazon and Flipkart and others were selling goods much below their market value thus denying the Government of its due legitimate GST revenue.

CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal has "urged the Finance Minister to institute a probe into this business model which is causing huge GST revenue losses to the government and recover the difference of GST between billed price and market value from the period of implementation of GST". According to the traders' body, under GST Act, the government has the power to determine the actual market value of the products if it appears that it is under billed. CAIT has sent similar letters to Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and finance ministers of all states.